green graphic stripe three feet tall along the back wall of eventually lost their battle with
le with cancer. We couldnt help
our parents house that is still there 40 years later. And
he always loved creating one-of-a-k ind gifts, like the time
he made his girlfriend a phone that would only dial his
number, no matter what buttons she pushed.
Tom, on the other hand, followed a path that seemed
more traditional. After studying liberal arts in college,
he considered going to law school, tried working at an
F ro m t h e Preface an d In t ro duct io n to accounting firm for a while, and played an IT-related role
Creative Confidence: for General Electric. After getting an MBA, he worked
Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All in a spreadsheet- i ntensive position as a management
consultant. Along the way, his jobs were mostly predictable,
both in their day-to-day work and the longer-term career
paths each offered. Then he joined the design world and
discovered there was more fun to be had coloring outside
the lines.
We remained close all this time and spoke to each other
most weeks, even when we lived 8,000 miles apart. After
David founded the design and innovation firm that would
become IDEO, Tom helped out there during business
school and then rejoined full time in 1987. We have worked
together ever since, as the firm continued to grow: David
as CEO and then chairman, Tom in leadership roles that
included marketing, business development, and storytelling.
The story of this book begins in April of 2007, when
Davidthe older of usgot a call from his doctor, who
uttered one of the scariest, most dreaded words in the
PREFACE
medical lexicon: cancer. He was at his daughters fourth-
This is a book from two brothers who have been close all grade class helping 9-year-olds think about how to redesign
our lives. As children in small-town Ohio, we played base- backpacks when the call came through, and he managed
ball on the same Tigers Little League teams in the sum- to spend another hour with the young students before
mer and built snow forts together in the winter. We shared breaking away to process this new setback. David had
a bedroom for 14 years, tacking up posters of muscle cars been diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinomathroat
on the knotty-pine walls in the kind of finished basement cancerand given a 40 percent chance of surviving the
that was popular in the Midwest. We went to the same ordeal.
grade school, joined the same Boy Scout troop, went on At that moment, Tom had just wrapped up a
family vacations to Lake Erie, and once camped all the presentation to 2,000 executives in So Paulo, Brazil. As he
way to California and back with our parents and two sis- sat down backstage and switched his cell phone back on, it
ters. We took many things apart, and put some of them rang almost immediately. When he got the sobering news
back together. of Davids diagnosis, he abandoned the rest of his South
But a close-k nit relationship and overlapping lives do American trip and headed immediately for the airport.
not mean our paths were the same. David has always been a Although he knew there was little he could do to help, he
bit unconventional. His favorite class in high school was art. had to get home to see David.
He played in a local rock band called The Sabers with his We had always been close, but Davids illness further
friends. He built giant plywood structures like jukeboxes cemented our bond that year. Through the next six
and grandfather clocks for the annual spring carnival at months of chemotherapy, radiation, hydration, morphine,
Carnegie Mellon. He started a firm called Intergalactic and finally surgery, we saw each other almost every day,
Destruction Company (the month Star Wars debuted in sometimes talking endlessly and other times passing hours
theaters) so he and his friends could do construction work together while speaking barely a word. At the Stanford
together for the summer. Just for fun, he painted a bright Cancer Center, we crossed paths with patients who
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wondering whether time was running out for David too.
If there is an upside of that terrible disease, its that
cancer forces deep reflection, causing you to think about
purpose and meaning in your life. Everyone we know who
has survived cancer says that they look at life differently
in its aftermath. Late in the year, as David recovered from
surgery, we saw the first real hope of pushing cancer into the
background of our lives. Faced with that joyous possibility,
we vowed that if David survived, we would do two things
together that involved neither doctors nor hospitals:
First, wed take a fun brother/brother trip together
somewhere in the world, which we had never done in our
adult lives.
And second, we would work together side-by-side on a
project that would allow us to share ideas with each other and
the world.
The trip was an unforgettable week in Tokyo and
Kyoto, exploring the best of modern and ancient Japanese
cultures. And the collaborative project was creating the
book you now hold in your hands.
Why a book about creative confidence? Because we
have noticed from thirty years at IDEO that innovation
can be both fun and rewarding. But as you look at the
sweep of your life and start to think of a legacy that
survives beyond it, giving others the opportunity to live
up to their creative capacity seems like a worthy purpose.
In the midst of cancer in 2007, a recurring question was,
What was I put on Earth to do? This book is part of the
answer: To reach out to as many people as possible. To give
future innovators the opportunity to follow their passions.
To help individuals and organizations unleash their full
potential and build their own creative confidence.
David and Tom Kelley
 through ideas to marketfrom Apples first computer
mouse to next-generation surgical tools for Medtronic to
fresh brand strategies for The North Face in China. And
weve also seen that our methods can produce a new, cre-
ative mindset in people that can dramatically enhance
their lives, whether they work in the fields of medicine, law,
Belief in
business, education, or science.
Over the past three decades, weve helped countless
people nurture their creativity and put it to valuable use.
your creative
Theyve created housing optimized for the needs of service
men and women returning from war zones. Theyve set up
an ad hoc innovation team in a corporate hallway, generating
capacity lies
so much energy and noise
that the company gave them The truth is, we all have
a dedicated project space. far more creative potential
at the heart of Theyve developed a low-waiting to be tapped.
cost system for screening and
fitting hearing aids among elderly people in remote villages of
innovation. developing countries, helping some of the 360 million people
in the world who suffer from disabling hearing loss. These
people have many backgrounds but share one common trait.
They all have gained creative confidence.
At its core, creative confidence is about believing in
your ability to create change in the world around you. It is
the conviction that you can achieve what you set out to do.
We think this self-assurance, this belief in your creative
Introduction
capacity, lies at the heart of innovation.
THE HEART OF INNOVATION Creative confidence is like a muscleit can be
strengthened and nurtured through effort and experience.
When you hear the word creativity, what do you think
Our goal is to help build that confidence in you.
of next?
Whether you think of yourself as the creative type or
If you are like many people, your mind immediately
not, we believe reading this book will help you unlock and
leaps to artistic endeavors like sculpture, drawing, music,
draw on more of the creative potential that is within us all.
or dance.
You may equate creative with artistic.
You may believe that architects and designers are
paid to be creative thinkers, but CEOs, lawyers, and doc- CREATIVITY NOW
tors are not. Creativity is much broader and more universal than what
Or you may feel that being creative is a fixed trait, people typically consider artistic fields. We think of
like having brown eyeseither youre born with creative creativity as using your imagination to create something
genes, or youre not. new in the world. Creativity comes into play wherever you
As brothers whove worked together for 30 years at have the opportunity to generate new ideas, solutions, or
the forefront of innovation, we have come to see this set of approaches. And we believe everyone should have access to
misconceptions as the creativity myth. It is a myth that that resource.
far too many people share. This book is about the opposite For much of the 20th century the so-called creative
of that myth. It is about what we call creative confidence. typesdesigners, art directors, copy writerswere rele-
And at its foundation is the belief that we are all creative. gated to the kids table, far from serious discussions. Mean-
The truth is, we all have far more creative potential while, all the important business conversations took place
waiting to be tapped. among the grown-ups in boardrooms and meeting spaces
Weve helped thousands of companies bring break- down the hall.
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But the creative endeavors that seemed fanciful or suddenly experiencing what it feels like when you release
extracurricular a decade ago have now gone mainstream. the brake and can drive freely. We see this with executives
Education thought leader Sir Ken Robinsonwhose a lot when we have a workshop, or when we have clients
riveting 2006 TED Talk asking Do Schools Kill in to collaborate with us side-by-side. Theyve sat through
Creativity? was the most popular in historysays that seminars about innovation before, and they are convinced
creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we they know how creativeor how uncreativetheyre
should treat it with the same status. going to be. So when we get to a point thats fuzzy or
In the business world, creativity manifests itself as unconventionallike doing an improv exercisesuddenly
innovation. Tech stars such as Google, Facebook, and they whip out their smartphones, heading for the exits to
Twitter have unleashed their employees creativity to make really important phone calls.
change the lives of billions of people. Today, people in Why? Because they are unsure of their abilities in that
every departmentfrom customer service to finance setting. They instinctively fall back on the defense that
have opportunities to experiment with new solutions. Im just not the creative type.
Companies desperately need employees insights from In our experience, everybody is the creative type. We
across the organization. No individual executive or division know that if we can get individuals to stick with it awhile,
holds a monopoly on new ideas. they will end up doing amazing things. They come up with
Whether you live in Silicon Valley or Shanghai, breakthrough ideas or suggestions, and work creatively
Munich or Mumbai, youve already felt the effects of with a team to develop something truly innovative. They
seismic market shifts. Most businesses today realize that surprise themselves with the realization that they are a lot
the key to growth, and even survival, is innovation. One more creative than they had thought. That early success
recent IBM survey of more than 1,500 CEOs reports shakes up how they see themselves, and makes them eager
that creativity is the single most important leadership to do more.
competency for enterprises facing the complexity of global What weve found is that we dont have to generate
commerce today. An Adobe Systems poll of 5,000 people creativity from scratch. We just need to help people redis-
on three continents reports that 80 percent of people see cover what they already have: the capacity to imagine or
unlocking creative potential as key to economic growth. build upon new-to-the world ideas. But the real value of
Yet only 25 percent of these individuals feel that theyre creativity doesnt emerge until you are brave enough to act
living up to their creative potential in their own lives and on those ideas. That combination of thought and action
careers. Thats a lot of wasted talent. defines creative confidence: the ability to come up with
How might we shift that balance? How might we help new ideas and the courage to try them out.
the other 75 percent unleash their creative potential? Geshe Thupten Jinpa, who has been the Dalai
In 2005, David founded the d.school (formally known Lamas chief English translator for more than 20 years,
as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) to teach design shared an insight with us recently about the nature of
thinkinga methodology creativity. Jinpa pointed out that theres no word in the
Only 25 percent of individuals for innovating routinely Tibetan language for creativity or being creative. The
feel that theyre living up to future entrepreneurs closest translation is natural. In other words, if you want
to their creative potential. from Stanfords graduate to be more creative, you just have to be more natural. We
Thats a lot of wasted talent. schools. Originally, we forget that back in kindergarten, we were all creative. We
thought that the primary all played and experimented and tried out weird things
challenge would be to teach creativity to people who saw without fear or shame. We didnt know enough not to. The
themselves as analytical types. We soon realized that all fear of social rejection is something we learned as we got
of the individuals we worked with already had creativity in older. And thats why its possible to regain our creative
spades.1 Our job was simply to help them recapture it, by abilities so swiftly and powerfully, even decades later.
sharing new skills and mindsets. It turns out that creativity isnt some rare gift to be
We have been stunned at how quickly peoples imag- enjoyed by the lucky fewits a natural part of human
ination, curiosity, courage, and fresh ideas are renewed,
with just a small amount of practice and encouragement. A note about we: this book has two authors, so you will see the first person
1
For the people weve worked with, opening up the plural a lot. When talking about just one of us, we will say David or Tom.
In some contexts, however, the we will mean the team at IDEO where the
flow of creativity in them is like discovering that youve two of us work, or the faculty and staff of the d.school where David (but not
been driving a car with the emergency brake onand Tom) spends time.
thinking and behavior. In too many of us it gets blocked.
But it can be unblocked. And unblocking that creative
spark can have far-reaching implications for yourself, your
organization, and your community.
We believe that our creative energy is one of our most
precious resources. It can help us to find innovative solu-
tions to some of our most intractable problems.
trial. She had the jury picture themselves at the scene
of the incident, to imagine what it felt like. And through
harnessing their empathy, she wonthe first time a jury
had ever favored her side of that particular case.
An ex-government executive started a grassroots
innovation movement in Washington, DC that has grown
to over a thousand members. Through workshops and
networking events, she is spreading her new perspective
on organizational change to other leaders and aspiring
entrepreneurs.
After four decades of experience, an elementary
sights higher, try harder, persevere longer, and show more * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
resilience in the face of failure.
Our practical experience in the world of innovation Tom Kelley is the bestselling author of The Art of Innovation
and creative confidence aligns closely with his findings. and The Ten Faces of Innovation as well as a partner at the
When people transcend the fears that block their creativity, renowned design and innovation consultancy IDEO. Over
all sorts of new possibilities emerge. Instead of the prospect the years, he has spoken in more than thirty countries and
of failure paralyzing them, they see every experience as helped IDEO grow from 15 designers to a staff of more than
an opportunity they can learn from. The need for control 600, while leading diverse areas such as business develop-
keeps some people stuck at the planning stage of a project. ment, marketing, human resources, and operations. Tom is
With creative confidence, they become comfortable with an Executive Fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC
uncertainty and are able to leap into action. Instead of Berkeley and holds a similar role at the University of Tokyo.

Our creative school teacher restructured her curriculum into design

challenges. Instead of teaching discrete subjects, she
resigning themselves to the status quo, or what others In 1978, David Kelley co-founded the design firm
have told them to do, they are freed to speak their mind that ultimately became IDEO. Today, he serves as chair of

energy is one
created engaging projects that covered the same topics and challenge existing ways of doing things. They act with IDEO and is the Donald W. Whittier Professor at Stanford.
but got students to step away from their desks and think greater courage, and have more persistence in tackling Preparing the design thinkers of tomorrow earned
more critically. Their test scores improved, but more obstacles. David the Sir Misha Black Medal for his distinguished

of our most
importantly, parents noticed their children were more We believe this book will help you overcome the contribution to design education. He has also won the
engaged and inquisitive. mental blocks that hold back your creativity. Chapter by Edison Achievement Award for Innovation, as well as the
You dont have to switch careers or move to the chapter, we will give you tools that empower you to pur- Chrysler Design Award and National Design Award in

precious
Silicon Valley to change your mindset. You dont have to sue new ideas with confidence. The stories, methods, and Product Design from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design
become a design consultant or quit your job. The world practices that we will share draw on decades of collabo- Museum.
needs more creative policymakers, office managers, and ration with creative thinkers everywhere, and we believe

resources. real estate agents. Whatever your profession, when you

approach it with creativity, youll come up with new and
better solutions and more successes. Creative confidence
they will help you too. ******************************

IDEO applies its human-centered approach to drive

can inspire whatever work you already do. THE CREATIVE CONFIDENCE QUEST innovation and growth for the worlds leading companies
Because what happens is that you gain a new tool to as well as for government, education, health care, and
Today, our mission as authors is to help as many people as
enhance your problem-solving practices, without having to social sectors.
CREATIVE CONFIDENCE IN ACTION possible rediscover their creative potential.
abandon any of your existing techniques. Weve talked to
Confronted with their newfound creativity, people
Creative confidence is a way of experiencing the world doctors who have found new ways
sometimes confide in us that their mother was a dancer, Preorder your copy today:
that generates new approaches and solutions. We know to empathize with (and more You dont have to switch
or their father was an architect. They seem to be rational-
that anyone can gain creative confidence. We have wit- effectively treat) their patients, careers or move to the
izing their spark of creative energy, as if they are searching CreativeConfidence.com
nessed it in people from diverse backgrounds and careers. looking beyond the surface Silicon Valley to change
for concrete evidence. What they dont realize is that their
Everyonefrom scientists in their labs to senior manag- symptoms. Weve talked to your mindset.
creative potential was always a part of themnot because
ers at Fortune 500 companiescan approach their lives executive recruiters who use our
of any family history or genetic predisposition, but be-
differently, with a new outlook and a larger toolset. Here methods to find new matchups between talented people and
cause it is a natural human ability within us all.
are a few examples of people who have embraced creative the companies who need them most. Weve talked to social
Creative confidence is a way of seeing that potential
confidence: workers who use human-centered approaches to help people
and your place in the world more clearly, unclouded by
A former Olympian entered the airline industry and in the community understand confusing application forms.
anxiety and doubt.
developed the confidence to tackle her companys crisis People with creative confidence have a greater impact
We hope youll join us on our quest to embrace cre-
management problems head-on. She gathered a volunteer on the world around themwhether that means getting
ative confidence in our lives. Together, we can all make
task force of pilots, dispatchers, crew schedulers, and others involved with their childs school, turning a storage room
the world a better place.
to prototype procedures following weather- related flight into a vibrant innovation space, or harnessing social media
disruptions, leading to a forty percent faster recovery time. to recruit more bone marrow donors.
An Army Captain who served in Iraq and Afghani- As legendary psychologist and Stanford professor
stan rallied over 1700 people to petition for a pedestrian Albert Bandura has shown, our belief systems affect our
mall in the local community, proving you dont have to be actions, goals, and perception. Individuals who come
a general to have an impact. to believe that they can effect change are more likely to
Going beyond just the raw facts of a case, a law school accomplish what they set out to do. Bandura calls that
student took a human- centered approach to her mock conviction self-efficacy. People with self-efficacy set their

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